Street Hoops

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By IGN

Activision is foaming at the mouth to give us their take on street basketball in the amazingly descriptive title Street Hoops for the Xbox. The glitz, glamour and matching uniforms of the NBA are nowhere to be found in this one. Street Hoops is all about sweaty gyms and skinned knees on asphalt, with pawn shops, shiny jewelry and cornrows thrown in in the name of authenticity. At least that's what we're assuming.

The game features four modes of play, World Tour, King of the Court, and Full and Half Court Pickup, and focuses on the kind of pick-up street ball played in deep urban centers such as Washington D.C., Chicago, LA, Venice, The Dome, and The Cage (West 4th St. in New York City), and many more. And being such a hip publisher, Activision has located and licensed several of the top street players. The game stars "legends" such as Hot Sauce, Booger, The Future, Headache, The Main Event, 1/2 Man-1/2 Amazing (the original, not Vince Carter), Speedy, and AO.

The aim of the game is to show off your killer moves, but also to become the best street players in the US. As such, to progress through World Tour players must earn money by beating other teams and in a nice touch, by betting. The betting functions in this game are deep with selections, and gamers can earn quite a bundle if they bet smartly.

Activision has gone out of its way to make this a multiplayer game, so that as many as four players can get to grips with it simultaneously. Players can chose pickup games that range from one-on-one to five-on-five, or any number in between.

Street Hoops is deep with a Create-A-Player function that enables players to change their shirts, shorts, shoes, glasses, sock height, and accessories, such as headbands, wristbands, etc.

The pre-alpha version we saw today showed off exceptional motion capture work, coupled with smooth dribbling, handling, and shooting animations. It features as many as eight different camera angles, and looks better than we expected.